Thinkers, Doers, Movers and Shakers: Diversity in Business

Carmen Aguiar

As founder and president of The Aguiar Group, Carmen serves as an advisor to multi-generational families including facilitation related to financial and business issues.  Her services also extend to businesses, including family business facilitation, development of pricing strategy, visioning, goal setting, planning and implementation, technology, human resource management,: recruiting, hiring and management. She served on the board of the Federal Home Loan Bank and on the national board of the Small Business Administration. Her broad knowledge has provided opportunities to public speaking with Honeywell. other corporations and public groups and committees in the community. She has been featured in numerous articles including being selected as one of the most prominent business leaders under 40 by the Puget Sound Business Journal.

Carmen received her accounting degree at Hunger College. She has a Certified Financial Planner designation and is Series 7 (Broker) and 65 (Investment Advisor Representative) certified. She is also a Certified Public Accountant, was a senior tax accountant at Ernst and Young, and is active in the Washington Society of CPAs.

Willard Bill, Jr.

Willard Bill Jr. is an enrolled member of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe and is the Program Manager of Huchoosedah, Indian education for Seattle Public schools. Willard lives on the Muckleshoot Indian reservation and has worked for Tribe in the area of education in both K-12 and higher education. Willard is also active culturally as a skipper in the Muckleshoot Canoe Family. The Muckleshoot Tribe has 1600 members and has pursued a trio of economic development projects including the Muckleshoot Casino, the Muckleshoot Mall and White River Amphitheatre. They provide 1400 jobs with $31 million payroll and is the second-largest employer in southeast King County. The Muckleshoot also contribute over $1.5 million to various charities and nonprofit organizations in the community.

Darlene Fox

Darlene Fox is currently the manager of Noise, Weights & Scientific Computing.  Darlene joined Boeing in 1980 as a systems analyst in the Space and Military Applications Division.  She has developed engineering applications and engineering graphics solutions.

In 1990, Darlene was promoted to management in the Defense & Space Support Group, responsible for the design of interactive engineering analysis and graphics plotting systems.  She has experience providing computing tools and support to both the Boeing Integrated Defense Systems and the Commercial Airplanes business units.

Darlene attended Spelman College where she received a Bachelors degree in computer science.  Since arriving in Seattle in 1980, she has been an active member of her community.  She has worked with the East Madison YMCA Black Achiever program since 1991, served on the steering committee, and as chair of the computer cluster.  Darlene was acknowledged as a Boeing Black Achiever in May of 1992.  Darlene was recognized at the Women of Color and Technology Conference, in 1992, as one who makes a difference.    Darlene joined the Board of Trustees for The Group Theater in late 1993 and served four years in various assignments including Board President.  She also participated on a community task force on diversity for A Contemporary Theater (ACT), called Opening Act, in 1993.  In 1998 she was featured in the Oct/Nov issue of US Black Engineer magazine as one of “50 Who Make a Difference”.  Darlene is a lifetime member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and is past president for the Seattle Chapter of the National Alumnae Association of Spelman College.

Virginia (Ying-Hsing) Ling

Systems Integration Architect
Engineering, Operations & Technology, IT Architecture

Virginia is a 2003 graduate from the University of Washington where she earned a BA in Business Administration with a concentration in Information Systems and a Certificate in International Business focused on Chinese-speaking countries.  Virginia also received a Master’s of Science in Information Technology from Carnegie Mellon University West in August 2006.

After her experience with three college internships at The Boeing Company, Virginia accepted a full-time position in Boeing’s IS Career Foundation Program, a two-year IT rotation program. In June 2005, she graduated from the rotation program and currently supports the Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) Program as a systems architect.
In January 2006, she was invited to become a member of the Engineering, Operations & Technology Diversity Council and facilitates and participates in opportunities to explore and utilize the rich world of cultures at The Boeing Company. Her experiences in corporate American as a member of Generation X has inspired her to create and present several diversity seminars that facilitate working across generational differences.

Virginia is dedicated to the company and wants her contributions to speak for themselves while also allowing her the freedom to ‘work to live.’  Virginia loves to salsa dance on Saturday nights; travel the world to find inner peace; cook 30-minute meals, and would eventually like to learn and surpass the kung fu skills of Zhang Zi-Yi.

Sayumi Irey

Moderator

Sayumi has been the driving force behind the growth of the Ethnic and Cultural Studies Program. She has an Associates degree from Everett Community College, a BA (Asian American Studies) and MLS (Library Science) from the University of Washington. Currently, Sayumi teaches academic survival skills for international students to help them to be successful in meeting their academic goals.